The present invention relates to a knob for use in a wire harness which, when a wire harness mounted in a vehicle is removed from the vehicle, can be used to remove the wire harness with enhanced removing operation efficiency, and also a wire harness incorporating the same therein.
As the recognition of environmental problems increases, an interest in the effective use of resources increases more and more. In such environmental problems, of course, there is included a problem as to a vehicle which is scrapped. Especially, an electronically controlled vehicle developed in recent years uses an enormous quantity of wire harnesses and thus such wire harnesses cannot be ignored in the present circumstances.
In view of such circumstances, even at present, the wire harness is recycled but there is raised a problem that it is not easy to remove the wire harness from the scrapped vehicle. This problem will be discussed below in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.
A wire harness 1 is produced by binding a plurality of wires into wire bundles W and winding tape 2 around the wire bundles W, while the wire harness 1 is connected to an electric system disposed within the vehicle through connectors 3 respectively coupled to the respective ends of the wire bundles W. Generally, a securing member, that is, a clamp 4 is firmly mounted on the intermediate portion of the wire harness 1 by tape 5 and thus, normally, the wire harness 1 is mounted into a vehicle body B using this clamp 4. The clamp 4 includes an anchor-shaped engaging portion 4a and, as shown in FIG. 2, by fitting this engaging portion 4a into a through hole 6 opened up in the vehicle body B, the wire harness 1 can be fixed to the vehicle body B.
In the wire harness 1 which is mounted into the vehicle by using the clamp 4, to remove the wire harness 1 from the vehicle, there is necessary manual labor in which a tensile force is applied to the clamp 4 to thereby forcibly pull out the clamp 4 from the through hole 6 of the vehicle body B and thus remove the same from the through hole 6. For this reason, a dealer who takes down a scrapped vehicle, that is, a wrecker often uses machine power such as a crane truck when taking out the wire harness 1 from the vehicle body B of the scrapped vehicle.
However, conventionally, it is not sufficiently considered a point contact of a wire harness with the machine power, and a clamp at a tip portion of the machine is often removed from a wire harness, even if the wire harness is clamped.
Further, a clamper or a gripping portion of the crane truck etc. is excessively large when compared with the outside diameter of the wire harness 1 and, therefore, to grip the wire harness 1 using the damper of the crane truck requires a delicate operation, which raises a problem that the wire harness 1 gripping and removing operation provides a poor operation efficiency.
Also, after the wire harness 1 is gripped by the damper of the crane truck, when separating the wire harness 1 from the vehicle body B, there is found a problem that the wire harness 1 is easy to slip off the damper of the crane truck. Of course, when the wire harness 1 slips off the damper of the crane truck, it is necessary to grip again the wire harness 1 by the damper of the crane truck. For these reasons, it takes time and labor to remove the wire harness 1 from the vehicle body B.
The above description is also applied to the wire harness 110 and 201 as well as the wire harness 1.
Further, in the wire harness 310 arranged in the vehicle using the clamp 304, when removing the wire harness 310 from the vehicle, there is required manual labor in which a tensile force is applied to the clamp 304 to thereby forcibly pull out the clamp 304 from the through hole 306 of the vehicle body B so as to remove the clamp 304 from the through hole 306.
The present invention aims at eliminating the drawbacks found in the conventional wire harness removing device as well as the conventional wire harness incorporating the same therein.
According to the 1st aspect of the invention, there is provided a knob for a wire harness comprising: a base portion extending along the wire harness in the axial direction thereof; a belt portion extending perpendicularly from the longitudinal-direction middle portion of the base portion and windable around the outer periphery of the wire harness; and an eye portion formed in the leading end portion of the belt portion and exposable outwardly of the wire harness, wherein, in the eye portion, there is formed an eye for securing a hook and, in the base portion, there is formed an elongated hole for passing the eye portion therethrough.
Also, according to the 2nd aspect of the invention, there is provided a knob for a wire harness comprising: a base portion extending along the wire harness in the axial direction thereof; a lip portion extending from the base portion and insertable through the wire harness in the diameter direction thereof; and an eye portion formed in the leading end portion of the lip portion and projectable outwardly of the wire harness, wherein, in the eye portion, there is formed an eye for securing a hook.
Further, according to the 3rd aspect of the invention, there is provided a wire harness incorporating a knob therein, the knob comprising an eye portion exposed outwardly of the wire harness and an eye formed in the eye portion for securing a hook.
In attaining the above object, according to the 4th aspect of the invention, there is provided a wire harness formed by binding together wire bundles with tape, wherein an intermediate portion of part wire of each of the wire bundle is exposed to the outside and the thus exposed part wire intermediate portion is rotated once to thereby form an eye for securing a hook of a crane truck when dismantling a vehicle.
In attaining the above object, according to the 5th aspect of the invention, there is provided a wire harness, wherein a loop-shaped string body is wound around and fixed to the periphery of a required portion of a wire harness main body or to the periphery of a portion of a wire bundle forming the wire harness main body in the required portion of the wire harness main body in such a manner that there can be formed an eye for securing thereto a wire harness removing hook when removing the wire harness from a vehicle.
Also, according to the 6th aspect of the invention, there is provided a wire harness, wherein a string body is used to form an eye for securing thereto a harness removing hook when removing the wire harness from a vehicle, and the end portion of the string body is tied and fixed to the periphery of a required portion of a wire harness main body or to the periphery of a portion of a wire bundle forming the wire harness main body in the above-mentioned required portion of the wire harness main body.
In view of the above, it is an object of the invention to provide a wire harness which, when dismantling a vehicle, can enhance the efficiency of an operation to remove the wire harness from the vehicle.
Also, it is another object of the invention to provide a wire harness capable of positively securing a hook thereto which is mounted on the leading end of a wire rope or the like to be pulled by a power source.
In attaining the above object, according to the 7th aspect of the invention, there is provided a wire harness, wherein a wire bundle forming the present wire harness is divided in a portion thereof so as to have a forked wire bundle section, and there is inserted a hollow cylindrical body into the forked wire bundle portion, and also wherein the hollow cylindrical body extends through the wire harness in the diameter direction thereof.
According to the 7th aspect, a hook can be secured by using the hollow cylindrical body inserted into the wire harness.
Also, in achieving the above object, according to the 8th aspect of the invention, there is provided a wire harness, wherein a string body is disposed along a wire bundle forming the present wire harness, the two end portions of the string body are bound together with the wire bundle by tape, and the central portion of the string body is exposed to the outside.
According to the 8th aspect, a hook can be secured by using the outwardly exposed central portion of the string body disposed in the wire harness.